Charles Dickens was only born seven years before the publication of ‘Ivanhoe’. It is said that where Scott’s novels provided the material of dreams, Dickens explored the territory of society’s nightmares, with his books largely based around the detritus of 19th Century London as inspired by the time he spent in blacking factories as a child. He is said to be the great chronicler of 19th Century London. A lot of his books feature extraordinarily sensitised children damaged by their surroundings and upbringing and opens up childhood psychological complexity. ‘Great Expectations’ (1860) is described by A S Byatt as ‘a most horrible representation of childhood’. A picture painted of Dickens sitting in his chair surrounded by imaginary phantoms is a good metaphorical representation for how his mind worked. He seemed to be obsessed with the changing British society, which he often portrayed as an animate world, and a nervous, hostile and hysterical universe. A recurring and ongoing theme throughout his novels seemed to be a great desire to give a moral and social message to society, exposing the middle and upper classes to the apparent horrors endured by the lower classes. Strong and interesting characters, as are characteristic of 19th Century Novels were extreme in Dickens novels, often seeming unrealistic, all aptly named to create the impression that he hoped. Names such as ‘Fagin in ‘Oliver Twist’; ‘Steerforth’ in ‘David Copperfield’; ‘Miss. Havisham’ in ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘Mr. Bounderby’ in ‘Hard Times’ all haunted Victorian imaginations at the mere sound, showing his ability to provoke strong feelings towards characters merely through their names. He drew readers in through his sympathetic, melodramatic and humorous delineation of a world peopled with characters of all social classes, and by his condemnation of various social abuses. The impact that Dickens’ novels seemed to have was to continue a Victorian obsession and addiction to novels through serialised forms and expose social conditions and his strong yet subtle moral beliefs through his timeless and vivid characterisation.
Mrs. Gaskell was another renowned social exposer. ‘Mary Barton’ in 1845 was seen as an innovation because of the almost entirely working class cast of characters which seemed to give insight to the readers as to why poor people would hate the rich people. Despite not being of the lower classes herself in her position married to a utilitarian minister, she scrupulously researched her novels first hand by speaking to parents of dying children in the slums of Manchester. Using accents throughout her novels it was said that it was through ‘Mary Barton’ that the voice of the poor was heard in the drawing rooms of England. Mrs. Gaskell said that she felt her role as a writer was to move and to mend society and in many ways she did achieve both, raising consciousness leading many readers to take action by going and meeting the real life versions of her characters.
Unlike Mrs. Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë and her sisters Anne and Emily felt forced to write under the male pseudonyms of Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell. Sent to a boarding school as children with their two other sisters who died there of tuberculosis gave Charlotte Brontë the inspiration for the first part of ‘Jane Eyre’ where Jane is sent to Lowood School where following an outbreak of the same disease, her beloved friend Helen Burns dies. The rest of ‘Jane Eyre’ tells the rest of Jane’s story featuring the infamous volcanic Edward Fairfax Rochester. It is described as a fully fleshed portrait of women’s desires and a candid portrayal of a woman’s longing. The novel is extremely passionate, talking of deepest fears and longings, which seemed to open up new emotional landscapes for 19th Century Novels. The outpouring of feeling even made William Thackeray, a peer of the Brontës, cry. The fact that such feelings and longings were of Jane Eyre, a simple governess, described as plain looking aroused a fear of women and at the time was denounced for being brutal, coarse and vulgar leading even Mrs. Gaskell to forbid her daughters to read it. Her character of Rochester, like Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1814) provided a kind of template for brooding and handsome romantic heroes ever since. Unlike Mrs. Gaskell or Charles Dickens, all three Brontës with their respective masterpieces concentrated on the passion and love of women, which seemed extremely modern at the time. However, it is through the way in which they portray their heroes and their deepest interior feelings that they have survived as considered essential reading for young women today,
William Thackeray returning to the genre set by Austen earlier in the century wrote ‘Vanity Fair’ (1847), a novel famous for dissecting and satirizing London Society. Its heroine, Becky Sharpe was portrayed as a female player on a male stage as she survives the London Society through courage and awareness of her sexuality and is reputedly the most intelligent woman in 19th Century Novels. Still popular today, ‘Vanity Fair’ is a respected 19th Century Novel, it is said to offer a wider scope than Austen with its heroine described as complex as the society in which she lives.
Marianne Evans or infinitely more famously known as George Eliot, one of the most talented novelists of her century was admired for her acute powers of observation and in-depth characterisation within her novels. Her considered masterpiece ‘Middlemarch’ (1871-2) was described by Virginia Woolfe as ‘one of the few English Novels written for grown ups’ in which Dorothea hopes to marry well and to make a difference. The novel is credited for remaining scrupulously grounded giving no false promises. Through the setting in the 1830s, she seems to be able to write accurately, surveying the past from a vantage point of the 1870s. The Novel is described as capturing the whole society and world of that time through portraying the inner life of people.
Thomas Hardy is not considered strictly a 19th Century novelist due to the years in which he lived, however, his novels were all written before 1896 and both his novels and poetry can be described as characteristically Victorian. He is best known for his vivid portrayal of his beloved Wessex. Hardy is one of the few writers to succeed as both a writer and poet, having turned to poetry following criticisms of his later novels. He was famously inspired by interesting snippets of news stories such as dripping blood from a ceiling (Tess) and a child hanging himself and his siblings to save his parents (Jude). His novels generally cover a long period of time and he allows complete insight into his characters and their feelings, many never achieving true love or happiness despite their life-long struggle. Both ‘Jude the Obscure’ and ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ were highly criticised at his time of writing, the brutality of his stories shocking the Victorian Public. However, he remains popular due to the strength of his stories and characters.
Beyond the six authors that I have touched upon, the 19th Century literature collection is vast, many surviving and others falling into obscurity. Although the early 20th Century writers felt revolutionary in their casting off of the old Victorian novel style, I feel that the 19th Century Novelists were equally revolutionary in what they did for the novel. They created similar novel genres to what exists today and entertained and often shocked an uptight century. They introduced the art of observance and intricacy to the novel form and have formed the basis for the inspiration of novelists ever since.
